Falkland Islands: "Almirante Irizar"

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: On 15 and 16 March 2004 the Argentine naval Icebreaker, "Almirante Irizar" sailed through the Falklands Outer Conservation Zone and the Falklands Interim Conservation Zone. These are areas for which the Falkland Islands Government issue fishing licences. During the time that it was inside these zones, the Argentine vessel was challenging other vessels to identify themselves. While transit of the conservation zones is permissible, the policing of the zones by a foreign vessel contravenes the Falkland Islands exclusive jurisdiction.
	We asked the Argentine Government for an explanation of the vessel's actions. Their response was not satisfactory. We have therefore made a formal protest to the Argentine Government concerning the actions of the "Almirante Irizar", underlining the need to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again. This note also reiterated that Her Majesty's Government have no doubts about UK sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
	My right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Bill Rammell) has spoken to Falkland Island councillors about this incident. He shares their concerns and has briefed them on our response. He assured them of our continued firm support.

Nuclear Weapons: Safety

Lord Bach: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	In 1992, the then Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Ronald Oxburgh, conducted a review of the safety of nuclear weapons. It was reported to Parliament (Commons Hansard, 13 July 1992: col. 520) that he had recommended the inauguration of a safety "champion". A position entitled nuclear weapon safety adviser was subsequently created, and this has had two incumbents. More recently, further work has been done on safety management arrangements in the department in general, and in the nuclear programmes in particular, to reflect policy and organisational developments. As a result, we have appointed a nuclear weapon regulator to provide assurance about safety in the nuclear weapons programme. In so doing, it was recognised that the tasks of this official would be very similar to those of the nuclear weapon safety adviser, and it was decided that, when the regulator was ready to conduct business, the safety adviser post should close. This has recently occurred.

Ministry of Defence: Regional Prime Contract South-West

Lord Bach: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Debut Services (South West) Limited, a joint venture between Babcock International Group and Bovis Lend Lease, has been awarded the regional prime contract for the Ministry of Defence's estate in the south-west. This follows successful completion of the clarification phase.
	The seven-year contract, worth in the order of £480 million, is the second in a series of five such arrangements covering the estate and will provide for capital works, property maintenance and facilities management services throughout the south-west of England.
	The MoD has undertaken to make significant improvements in the overall condition of its estate by changing its organisational structures and introducing prime contracting methods. Encouraging innovation and efficiency, regional prime contracting is a key initiative that aims to provide a better quality of service and greater value for money through suitably incentivised contracts conforming to the principles of smart acquisition.

Bowman Tactical Communication System

Lord Bach: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	On 19 July 2001 I informed the House that, after years of delay and forecast cost growth, we had selected a preferred supplier to take forward the Bowman programme. Although our approved in-service date was December 2004, we set a demanding target to deliver by 30 March 2004. This target is just 30 months from the September 2001 contract awarded to General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd, a challenge unprecedented on such a major and complex acquisition project. Our priority was to deliver a secure, reliable voice communications replacement for Clansman and I am pleased to report to the House that Bowman has achieved its in-service date on this basis, ahead of the target. This achievement and the capability it provides will enable the programme to progress to its next key milestone, the delivery of war fighting capability in 2005.
	Once fully implemented, Bowman will provide a secure, tactical, voice and data communications system for our land forces and selected elements of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, until at least 2025. As well as being man-portable, it will be an integral part of the communications fit of major equipments such as warships, main battle tanks and helicopters. The provision of secure voice communications down to section level represents a step-change in capability for the Armed Forces as they migrate from Clansman to Bowman. Other functions which Bowman is designed to deliver, such as automatic position reporting and an ability to pass digital data around the battlefield, have been demonstrated in principle on field trials and their development is on course.
	At the end of 2002, nearly a year and a half into the Bowman contract, we extended it to further develop the battle management system and to enhance integration with systems and sensors on board our key armoured platforms—a programme known as CIP. A key advantage of aligning both programmes is that time and cost are saved through converting vehicles only once. There has been positive progress on CIP but the performance of the battle management system in recent field trials leads us to conclude that a few more months of work will be required to develop and fully demonstrate its effectiveness.
	Bowman will provide a marked increase in operational tempo, firepower lethality and survivability across all our Armed Services and will be a key enabler for the UK's network enabled capability. There is a widespread commitment to Bowman across the Services and industry stakeholder community and it has already demonstrated greater military capability overall than Clansman. The first brigade converted to Bowman will undertake a further 15 months of unit and collective performance training. As with the programme hitherto, the brigade will be closely involved in the development and proving of Bowman.
	Achieving the Bowman in-service date is an important step on the road to the ultimate goal of delivering a robust war-fighting capability that fully meets the requirements of the user in service. It is a key milestone on the path to achieving war-fighting operational readiness in 2005 and represents a huge success for smart acquisition as well as a big step forward for the British Armed Forces.

High Hedges

Lord Rooker: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	We have today launched a public consultation on implementing Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 in England. This gives local authorities the powers to deal with complaints about high hedges which are having an adverse effect on a neighbour's amenity.
	We are seeking views on draft regulations covering certain procedural details such as the fees that authorities should charge for this service and how appeals against their decisions should be dealt with. We are also seeking views on the draft guidance on how local authorities should administer the complaints system. This offers advice on how authorities should assess whether a hedge is having an adverse affect on a neighbour's amenity. Copies of the consultation paper and the draft guidance have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	The consultation papers have been sent to local authorities in England, specialist and other interested organisations. They have also been published on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website (www.odpm.gov.uk). The closing date for responses is 30 June 2004.
	This is another step towards tackling the misery which can be caused by high hedges and we are on course to have the system fully operational towards the end of this year.

Green Belt

Lord Rooker: My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	In 2000, the Government published figures on the area of land designated as green belt in England, based on figures in plans that had been adopted by 1997. I am pleased to announce today the publication of statistics that show changes to the amount of green belt since then. In future, such figures will be published on an annual basis, and will be used to monitor the Government's target to maintain or increase the amount of green belt in each region.
	The statistics show that since 1997 there has been an increase of around 25,000 hectares in the amount of green belt identified in adopted local and unitary development plans in England. In addition, there are proposals for an additional 12,000 hectares of green belt that are currently being taken forward in plans that have not yet reached adoption. This figure does not include changes to the green belt proposed in the New Forest, where land will be redesignated from green belt to national park once the national park has been formally designated. This comprises some 46,000 hectares of land in the area covered by New Forest District Council. In view of this redesignation, the Government do not intend that these figures should be included in monitoring progress towards their target of maintaining or increasing the amount of green belt in each region.
	Copies of the statistical release are available in the Libraries of the House.

Civil Registration

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.
	The House will wish to be aware of developments on the Government's plans for modernising civil registration.
	On 10 July 2003 the Government published the consultation paper Civil Registration: Delivering Vital Change. This set out our proposals to reform civil registration in England and Wales using powers in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. The proposed changes will make it easier both for citizens to deal with government at key points in their lives and in the lives of their families and for the Government to modernise this public service by exploiting improved information and communication technology. I am pleased to be able to tell the House that there were almost 3,400 responses to the consultation document. This indicates the very real interest among a wide range of stakeholders—registration practitioners and managers, the public and other interested organisations—in this area of reform.
	Our intention was to introduce a regulatory reform order in this Session of Parliament. This remains the case in respect of provisions relating to registration of births and deaths and access to birth and death records. I have however decided to postpone the presentation of provisions relating to marriage till early in the next Session. The splitting of the proposals in this way will ensure that the momentum for reform is sustained, while at the same time providing an opportunity for the second regulatory reform order to take account of Parliament's wishes on the civil partnership legislation.
	This strategy will not hinder the Government's plans for implementation that will begin in 2005 with improved information technology to forward registration information to the Registrar General and the structural reform of the local registration service.